APPARENTLY IT IS OK TO CALL FOR THE KLAN TO RIDE AGAIN

Editorial Published in Alabama on February 14, 2019 (Photo:gannett.cdn.com)

Something Not Quite Right

I am not a mental health professional. I do not have degrees in psychology nor psychiatry. I am not trained as a mental health doctor, nurse, support worker, or technician. Yet, I do not need professional education and training in these fields to deduce there is something not quite right, as my elders used to say, about it the editorial shown above, as well as whoever wrote it and the society in which he wrote it.

Th editorial was written on February 14th, 2019, by Goodloe Sutton, a white supremacist who publishes an Alabama newspaper called the Democrat-Reporter, in place called Linden. Not only is the editorial badly written — improper grammer, wrong spelling, lack of logic, full of fallacies and untruths — but one starts to sense something not quite right in the slaves borrowed their former master’s robes and horses and rode through the night to frighten some evildoer bit.That sense is confirmed by the next line: sometimes they had to kill one or two of them but so what.

In an interview on February 19, Sutton plainly and clearly explained the reason for penning the document. ”If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we’d all been better off,” he said. “We’ll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them.”

I suppose we could view this writing and these statements in several ways. The most urgent way, I believe, is through the lens of the legal system. The something not right about these words, it would seem to me, constitute, not only hate language, but pretty clear threats of violence. And not just violence — murder. And not just murder — murder of government officials — that’s somewhere int he realm of treason, I believe.

Yet, I have found no notice in any media source that Goodloe Sutton has been questioned, or arrested, or charged, for what the media is simply calling an “incendiary editorial.” Freedom of speech and all that, I reckon.

OK. I am not a professional legal expert, lawyer, judge, or even a paralegal, nor am I trained in what is called law enforcement. And agencies such as the FBI, who are supposed to be on top of this kind of stuff, certainly would not welcome me into their ranks. I cannot even get clearance to work for the TSA, those unpaid workers who are trained to be on the alert for terrorists — you know, the people who run around screaming Death to — — (whatever group they hate). So, far be it for me to suggest that perhaps Goodloe Sutton should be investigated, questioned, arrested, charged, prosecuted, sentenced or something. Best I leave it that to those who are busy investigating, questioning, and arresting people like the 11-year old black child who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know these protectors of our safety have their hands full with so much going on these days. But perhaps one day, they will get around to chatting with Goodloe Sutton.

Then again, maybe not. According to the media, Goodloe Sutton is not a threat. He is simply a professional journalist. It is reported that he was once nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, has won numerous awards for investigative journalism, and has owned several newspapers. I could not help but wonder what organization would give an award to a journalist who wrote in 2012: “”What will happen when the Ku Klux Klan is taken over by black people trying to run from the federal government?”

But, I am not a journalist. I do not belong to the Society of Professional Journalists, who gave Gooodloe Sutton a Sunshine Award. Nor do I belong to the Hugh Hefner Foundation, who also gave him an award. So, who am I to decide what good journalism is or not? I will leave that to the professional journalists.

Now, I may not be a mental health professional, a law enforcement professional, nor a professional journalist. But one thing I am is this: a person who knows that something is not quite right about this whole thing.

And I do not only mean about the editorial, the interview, the source of both of those: Goodloe Sutton, and the Klan, who he is calling to action. I mean there is something not quite right about the fact that the most the media could cough up was to describe this stuff as “absolutely disgusting”. And there is something not quite right about the fact that all professional journalists have done is distance themselves from Sutton, as has his alma matter, Ole Miss. He no longer has a plaque in the University of Mississippi’s School of Communications Hall of Fame. And the Alabama Press Association has “censured him” and “suspended his newspaper’s membership” in their organization. None of these illustrious organizations has bothered to comment, or write, that perhaps the stuff he wrote and said is not acceptable.

Meanwhile, one or two local Alabama government officials have mumbled is something along the lines of “that’s not funny-it’s a threat” and “‘what rock did that guy crawl out from under?” I haven’t heard a peep from one government official in Washington DC, where Sutton has asked the Klan to night ride to and lynch them. I had expected them to at least remind him that his behaviour is offensive. Or something along those lines.

And, law enforcement agencies have done nor said nothing at all. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from local Alabama agencies. However, I was expecting the FBI to jump to it.

Although, it may take a while for them to get around to Sutton. Because they still haven’t found people like Catherine Marie Kerkow, a prime white terrorist suspect of theirs.

If you don’t know who Ms. Kerkow is, she was a member of the Black Panthers, who hijacked a plane, secured a $500,000 payment from Western Airlines, and was granted political asylum in Algeria in 1972. Ms. Kerkow did not kill or injure anyone in this process.

And that’s not the only white terrorists the FBI is hot on the trail of. They are still busy looking for the other three white people on theor Domestic Terrorism Most Wanted List. These people are Donna Joan Borup and Elizabeth Anna Duke, wanted since 1982 for their membership in the May 19th Communist organization, and Leo Frederick Burt, who, in 1970, as a protest against the Vietnam War, blew up a unversity research lab where chemical weapons were being developed.

So, it seems to me the FBI has its hands full in terms of chasing white domestic terrorists. And, to be fair, they really are very busy. After all, they’ve got to also chase down the other 84 domestic terrorists on their list — the majority of whom are Muslims — and they are still after Assata Shakur, the only black woman on the list, who they’ve been looking for since 1973.

Seems domestic terrorists are as hard to find as a speck of lint in a snowstorm.

Now. As for those four white ones they cannot find. There is something not quite right about that list. Because even thought the four are listed as being associated with extremist groups, not one of them is in the Klan — the extremist group that Goodloe Sutton has called on to “night ride again.”

Perhaps this is an issue of semantics?The FBI’s list states that the four white domestic terrorists are hiding somewhere abroad. Somewhere. Who knows where. I guess sinc ethey don’t knwo, that’s why they cannot find them.

Yet, somehow the FBI are not seeing the white terrorists who are not lurking foreign countries. No, wait, hold on, maybe I’m right. Maybe it is semantics, seeing as how the FBI is not classifying the Klan as a white terrorist organization.

Ah, well, that explains it. The only white terrorists the FBI is concerned about are four people who left this place before most of my dear readers were even born.

I suppose semantics causes them to be labelled terrorists and that’s why the FBI cannot find the whites who have been waiting for a clarion call to ride out and kill folks using the classic white supremacist method of lynching.

The ones who, in fact, got that call last week from Goodloe Sutton. He instructed them to “get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them.”

So, what I want to know is this — why is Goodloe Sutton, and the Klan, whom he has called to action, not on the FBI Domestic Terrorism List?

There may be political, social, economic, or other analyses that can answer this question. Or it could simply be that the FBI doesn’t read print anymore and simply relies on social media companies to tip them off to terrorist plots and other threats to national security. Or, it could be that the social psychology of this place allows, people like Goodloe Sutton to call publically for the execution of people, and does not call that terrorism.

Like I said before, I am not a trained mental health professional. But, I am a pretty astute researcher. And, from what I have found, the FBI has some kind of foresnic psychology department. Seems to me that could give us some clues about the social psychologt of a place that does not consider people like Sutton, and the Klan, to be domestic terrorists.

Let’s look into that a bit, shall we?

Forensic Psychology & The Terrorist Profile

Catherine Marie Kerkow, considered by the FBI to be a white domestic terrorist (Photo: photo bucket.com)

Catherine Marie Kerkow was profiled by the FBI as a member of a group they classified as a terrorist organization — the Black Panther Party. According to forensic psychologist Dr. Randy Borum, who, in 2004, produced an extensive document for the government called The Psychology of Terrorism, there are some distinguishing psychological characteristics. Dr. Borum wrote his document in order to cotribute guidance to governmental agencies in terms of creating psychological profiles of terrorists.

I’d like to use a few points in Dr. Borum’s psychological profile of a terrorist to compare Ms. Kerkow’s possible motivations to those of someone like Sutton. In order to do so, I will also compare Ms. Kerkow’s membership in the Black Panther Party with Goodloe’s call to action to another organized terrorist organization — the Ku Klux Klan.

Perceived injustice: Ms. Kerkow joined the Black Panther Party because she believed Black people suffered injustice in the United States. Such a perception is/was logical and easily documented. Goodloe believes there is perceived injustice because of his alleged plot to raise taxes in the State of Alabama. While raising taxes is a contentious issue in the United States, it is not an injustice. Rather, it is a simply a government process. And, having to pay more taxes somehow pales in comparison to having to live with the daily oppression due to one’s skin colour in the United States. For example, whilst I have never heard of anyone being murdered by the IRS for not paying taxes, but I do know that government agencies were instrumental in murdering members of the Black Panther Party. So, Ms. Kerkow’s perception of injustice seems reasonable. However, in response to that perception, she just borrowed a plane and took a flight to another country. By contrast, Goodloe is calling for the Klan to night ride and lynch government officials. Seems to me his response to perceived injustice poses a much greater, and more imminent threat, than Ms. Kerkow’s decision to just leave this place 47 years ago.

Themes of humiliation often are prominent in terrorist ideologies. While Ms. Kerkow and the Black Panther Party did point out that black people are routinely humiliated by racism, and called for an end to that practice, they did not propose acts of violence against those who perpetrate the humiliation. Goodloe document indicates he feels humiliated by those he calls the ruling class who live in gated communities. And he is actively, right not, rallying a highly organized group with an established history of terrorism to go and murder them.

The powerful, naturally occurring barriers that inhibit human killing can be eroded by how one perceives the situation. Ms. Kerkow did not kill anyone due to how she perceived the situation in the United States. And, when control of the plane was given to her and Mr. Holder, all the passengers were safely disembarked. No one was injured. That was that. Goodloe Sutton has told the Klan to ride up to Washington DC and lynch government officials. Can’t be any clearer than that as an example of lacking powerful, naturally occurring barriers that inhibit human killing.

Effective leaders of terrorist organizations must be able to: maintain a collective belief system; establish and maintain organisational routines; control the flow of communication; manipulate incentives (and purposive goals) for followers; deflect conflict to external targets; and keep action going. In this regard, the Black Panther Party and the Ku Klux Klan are much the same. There is, however, one crucial differnece. The Black Panther Party did not, and does not, lynch people. The Ku Klux Klan does. And Goodloe Sutton has called on the Klan to lynch government officials. Just a few days ago. How many Black Panthers have called for the lynching of government officials? None. Ever.

Most violence can be usefully viewed as intentional. The Black Panther Party did not advocate violence against anyone. They did arm themselves to protect the black community from well documented police brutality. Furthermore, the Black Panther Party never once killed a person based solely on the colour of their skin. As a member of the Panthers, Ms. Kerkow ascribed to their ideologies, which did not include intentional violence. Goodloe Sutton ascribes to white supremacist ideologies held by the Ku Klan Klan, an organization that has intentionally murdered thousands of people based on skin colour, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and gender. As of 2013, the FBI reported there were 124 cold cases of murder, in which the prime suspects are members of the Klan. And this figure only covers the the Civil Rights era of the 1950s and 1960s, a period of only 20 years.

Based on these preliminary guidelines, it is safe to say that Goodloe Sutton fits the profile of a terrorist.

White Supremacist Terrorism, Social Learning & Social Psychology

Terrorist Behaviour is A Learned Social Behaviour (photo: moraluniversity.wordpress.com)

Dr. Borum makes a direct connection between terrorist behaviour and theories of social learning. As he states:

Behavior (e.g., aggression) is learned not only through one’s direct experience, but also through observation of how such contingencies occur in one’s environment. Some have referred to this as vicarious learning. In this model, aggression is viewed as learned behavior. Accordingly, it is argued that through observation we learn consequences for the behavior, how to do it, to whom it should be directed, what provocation justifies it, and when it is appropriate. “If aggression is a learned behavior, then terrorism, a specific type of aggressive behavior, can also be learned” (Oots & Wiegele, 1985, p. 1110)

I do not think need to further explain this connection to you, reader, because I am sure you “get it.” If it’s a bit hazy, just look at the photo above the quote.

Now. I ask that you let this settle in and then consider a few questions:

What kind of place is it in which the learned social behaviour of white supremacist terrorism, such as that practiced by the Klan, and advocated by Goodloe, is not only tolerated, but is not monitored?

What kind of place is it in which an organisation like the Klan, which has been in existence for nearly 150 years, and who is responsible for untold deaths of thousands of people, what kind of place is it, that does not consider the known 160 chapters of this organisation to be domestic terrorist organisations?

What kind of place it is in which people like Goodloe Sutton can print a call to action by organisations like the Klan, inciting them to go murder government officials, and not be profiled as a domestic terrorist who poses a threat to national security?

I would suggest to you that this is the type of place where white supremacy is an integral part of its social psychology.

That is, the ideologies and practices of the Klan, and people like Goodloe Sutton who support them, have somehow been normalised as simply part of what the media, psychologists, psychiatrists, law enforcement professionals, terrorist experts, and other talking heads continuously wax lyrical about — the “race tension” in the United States. That “hot topic” that is constantly “debated”, yet never resolved, because it is “just the way things are here.”

And, that, dear reader, is one important reason why Goodloe Sutton is not on the FBI Domestic Terrorism list. His white domestic terrorist profile is simply “the way things are here.”

Which, for me, is not merely “absolutely disgusting.” For me, it is absolutely terrifying.

I’m told Goodloe Sutton crawled out from under a rock. I’m checking all the rocks in my area for more like him. I suggest you do the same.

Oh, and by the way, don’t worry about Ms. Kerkow — she was arrested in 1975. But the French let her go. And she’s never returned to the United States. And even if she did, she won’t kill you due to your skin colour, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, gender, or because you want to raise her taxes. If anything, she’d probably help you defend yourself against people like Goodloe Sutton.

Thank goodness she was never brainwashed into the social psychology of white supremacy. Ah, but wait. Could it be that that’s precisely why she is considered a terrorist? Because perhaps people like her, who want an end to the devastation that the white supremacist pathology of racism causes in the United States, are people who pose a threat to this place?

Hmmm….yet another question to ponder in this room full of mirrors called the psychopathology of white supremacy. And I will continue to do just that, until the answers to my questions reveal a solution to this constant threat of white supremacist domestic terrorism.